Reborn Royals streaking into July for one last run

What do these key performers all have in common, besides their previously unforeseen turnaround campaigns? Each stands to be a free agent when the season concludes, and prior to the Royals' turnaround, each was at the top of the wish list for every contender looking to add to its pennant chase. Now, these players find themselves back in the hunt to craft what could be one last hunt for October together.

It is a situation that puts Royals GM Dayton Moore in a precarious position: ride the wave of the recent turnaround or blow up the core to start fresh? This weekend may be the deciding the factor, as the club enters a pivotal series hosting the Minnesota Twins. Along with the Cleveland Indians, the Royals find themselves in what could be a fight to the finish in the AL Central with Minnesota.

The Royals enter the weekend 2.5 games behind the Twins, a team they have only managed to defeat once in eight contests this season. After reviving their season over the past two months by winning at a near 60 percent clip, the Royals have made the AL Central race a party of three with a Wild Card berth also in play.

Yet this reverse of course may not change the plans for the team after the season no matter how things play out in the end. Unless they somehow have a second consecutive devastating turn in July, Moore almost certainly cannot deal away any players of substance from the roster, least of all any parts of the foursome that has turned the tides of the season. While the personal stocks of Hosmer, Cain, Vargas and Moustakas continue to rise and carry the immediate prospects of the Royals along with them, the turnaround also furthers the chance for it to become a very profitable winter on the open market for each player. It's something the club may have no choice but to grin and bear at this point.

It has become a no-brainer that management cannot simply give up on a year that has seen the club travel so far simply to pad the blow of the likely impending departures. So despite the fact that, much like the Milwaukee Brewers, the organization could completely reload for a renewed run by dealing away its quartet of prime trade chips for two times as many top prospects, the moves are nonstarters at this point. Instead, there is the chance the team may take a complete 180 and become buyers at the deadline instead in an effort to make the most of this potential final season for their homegrown core.

The decision to stay in the race is part common sense, part allegiance to a fan base that has had a revitalized investment in the club during its rise to prominence over the past handful of seasons. More than 2.5 million fans came to Kaufmann Stadium a year ago, a year after pulling in 2.7 million during the championship 2015 year. Already on the summer they have topped 1 million in attendance this season, a signal that attention — along with expectations — has changed in a town where baseball was previously tolerated during the wait for the Chiefs to resume play on their side of the Truman Sports Complex off Highway 70.

The reinvestment in the Royals has afforded the team the ability to spend where needed, as the $72 million deal that Alex Gordon signed a year ago proved. And while the K.C. faithful (as well as management) certainly hope for more in return than what Gordon has given since agreeing to stay on board, it is a fair signpost that the team could in theory be able to retain one, if not two, of its free agents to be.

Kansas City is once again a team on the rise, one that has decided to not go softly into the night this season and stands to be, at the very least, one of the most dangerous disruptions in the American League in the second half. It is a team in a rare place as a proven quantity that was somehow forgotten and prematurely written off despite still strongly resembling the baseball force of nature that could not be held back just two years ago. This is a team that knows what it means to face the trials of a long summer and even longer fall. It is a team with much to prove and play for on both a collective and personal levels, making them a dangerous cocktail of motivation.

The complication of where to go from here is real and understandable. As the weekend ahead offers another opportunity for the refurbished Royals to clear a hurdle in their run back toward real relevancy, it is also a chance to watch baseball be at its most unpredictable and most determined.

Based on the substantial odds they have already overcome, anything should be considered possible for these Royals, a team that everyone has seen before but nobody saw coming.